Keeping Passengers Happy

When I talk to folks about our family driving trips, the most common question they ask is about how our kids cope on these long drives.  They wonder what we do to keep the peace, especially in the back seat region of the vehicle.  It’s an excellent question, as the moods back there in the rear seats can make even a short drive seem torturously long.  We’ve found different strategies for different ages of kids. As we creep toward the teens, we are learning a lot more!

1. Respect the Nap: Naptime was basically a sacred time in our family when our kids were small. We tried very hard to maximize car naps especially on long drives.  We found that a well-timed lunch, involving time for kids to exercise was a key factor in nap duration and success. Try to get everybody to use the bathroom/ diaper changes/get gas, etc before you get back on the road to avoid the dreaded mid-nap car stop that wakes everybody up, yikes.
2. The Bag of Amusements: I think our son was the one who coined this term. Ideally, this bag will be filled with things to keep the small people busy and entertained for as long as possible.  Assess your kids’ readiness to pack this for themselves. They probably can’t do it without help until age 6 or so. Once upon a time, certain 3 year old filled her bag of amusements with mardi gras beads and one plastic fish, not exactly providing hours of entertainment. For the younger and or less organized set, pack a secret bag of amusements with things that are new to your kids, or things that you feel sure will keep them in good spirits. Keep the bag in the front seat and don’t show them the contents until they lose interest in their own stuff. Even then, give them one new thing at a time. You may need to set some ground rule about what goes in the kiddos individual, self packed bags for noise or other reasons (the Simon game with a dying battery will be super fun to listen to for 13 hours, for example).
3. Snacks: the Nectar of the Gods: Small children demand snacks as often as every 30 seconds so this is a super important item to keep in mind.  Hangry people are less fun to travel with so prevent that at all costs. Especially with the younger, less predictable kids, we like to have a mix of familiar, yet desirable snacks with new and exciting snacks. Consider crumbs, melting, smell, kids food needs, potential for use as a projectile, etc when choosing your items. Carrot sticks are awesome but only if you people will actually eat them. Bananas smell weird after about 5 minutes and have that pesky peel to dispose of. Trader Joes cereal bars seem good until one is squished into the crevices of the carseat.  It’s nice to have some form of trash bag ready for snack wrappers, peels, leavings, etc.
4. Music, etc: This is a big one for our kids, especially as they’ve gotten older. Use whatever music adds the most sanity to your life. Maybe that means listening to Beck’s song E-pro 77 times in a row? This happened to us with a certain 1 year old.  It could mean using I tunes, CDs (we often borrow from the library), Spotify, Sirius XM, or whatever you use for music. CDs are generally about one hour so they can help small people judge how long until a stopping place.  Everybody gets to choose, even the person whose favorite CD is 2 hours of frog sounds.  We have never used books on tape but they are a lifesaver for some families.  Some books are so long they may last your entire drive!

What do you use to  keep your kids entertained on long drives?